Support for President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has slipped markedly since his rival visited China, according to a poll by a Chinese-language newspaper published yesterday.
The United Daily News poll was taken on Wednesday as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
The poll said only 34 percent of the respondents approved of Chen's performance, while 50 percent disapproved and 17 percent had no opinion.
A poll conducted by the same newspaper in March found 41 percent approving of Chen's performance, 37 percent disapproving, and 22 percent having no opinion.
Lien's visit to China has put Chen on the defensive, forcing him to soften his stance on Beijing but drawing ire from pan-green supporters, who criticized Chen's decision to back off from condemning Lien's trip.
The latest survey said Chen's support fell mostly among members of his party and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU). Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials said many supporters in southern Taiwan -- a DPP stronghold -- wanted to leave the party.
In an emergency party meeting, DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) hinted the president needed to take strong action to minimize the damage from Lien's trip.
``In this China fever, we can see that the Chinese communists did not make any concessions and yet Taiwan has slanted toward them,'' Su said. ``We are having a national crisis that's worrying us.''
Wednesday's poll was conducted by telephone among 838 people. It had a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
RSS